Rapid growth over the last few years has left San Diego with an IT talent shortage. The need is spread across virtually all companies, covering nearly every aspect of IT. It’s gotten so severe the San Diego Software Industry Council and San Diego Regional Economic Development Corp. will begin advertising to other counties to attract talent.

Why the shortage? “A skills gap plays some part, but most tech people don’t think of San Diego as a tech hub,” says Bob Slapin, executive director of the Software Industry Council. “HNC – now Fico – was founded here. Teradata has its major analytics staff here.”

San Diego was one of a handful of cities where IT didn’t contract during the recession. TechAmerica says the city was among a handful to add jobs in 2009.

Now the area is rapidly expanding. “Software engineers with 0-5 years experience are in demand. Every major company has a need,” says Slapin. “High-end analytics is also in demand.”

Among the companies looking:

Technology and media company Active Network has15 positions on Dice, including data scientist, senior business systems analyst, as well as Java and web developers.